Life Away From The Office Chair

It has was a great weekend full of surprises. I spent Mothers Day weekend at the beach. My daughter tagged along with us of course. Despite the cloudy weather, the temperatures were in the 70's and we didnt get rained on. We had a small shower the night we went out to dinner but that was ok. We got to spend lots of time walking the beach and enjoying the ocean.

My husband and daughter treated me to crab legs at Duffys Seafood Shack. It was delicious. My Mothers Day gift was a round beach towel that I had wanted and a gold bracelet. I love them and cant cant wait to use the towel on my next beach trip in June.

Then came today. I am 48 years old today. Until yesterday, I thought I was going to be 47. Haha. I feel great! My goal is to live to be 100 years old. So far Im doing pretty good at it.

My daughter is home today so she can celebrate my birthday with me. Her being here is the best gift ever. She came in the door carrying a giant doughnut instead of a cake. I love doughnuts!

Then I opened more gifts. She wrapped me a beautiful tasseled shirt and a new sports bra. Ha. I love them.

My husband gave me a beautiful card with some cash to buy myself something nice and wanted me to assure him I wouldnt spend it on anything else but me. That will be hard, so I hid the money until I find something to buy myself.

I have had so many friends wish me happy birthday on Facebook and other social media. They all mean so much to me. Everyone has made my day special. Of course I want at least 52 more of them!

Happy Mothers Day. I hope you all think of your mothers today no matter where they are now.

This is the first Mothers Day that I did not attend Church. I feel a little guilty about that but we took a beach trip this weekend and right now we are heading home. We will be back in town in time to join the rest of the family to have dinner with Mom. We will be taking her to her choice of restaurant. Im thinking a lot about my mom as I ride down the road.

Growing up, my mom would say (and still says) many things that showed me direction and love. but I did not always agree with some of them and some would make me mad. Now that im older and have a daughter of my own I understand it now. This brings me to thinking of some of the things I remember that my Mother would say. I remember it like it was yesterday (really it could have been just yesterday).
Let me humor you with some of the things I remember and I actually find myself telling my own daughter sometimes.

1. "Just pray about it"- This is what she would tell me when I was hurt and confused. At this point, I knew she just didn't have the answer and these words would comfort me, so pray is what I did. and it worked!

2. "Your not going out of this house like that"- This pertained to any thing I wore above my knees or showed my belly button.

3. "Well, then they are not your friends!"- Often I would complain that my friends would make fun of me or be mad at me because I couldn't do certain things. Well, They were my friends and still are, they just didn't understand at the time because they lived with different rules.

4. "Well, your not everybody"- When I really thought I was the only one that could not go or do something I wanted to do. I mean, everybody else did it! Really!

5. "You look like a clown"- This is when I'd put on makeup. Therefore, I would sneak and wear it. Nobody else called me a clown. If they had, Id probably listened to them. Ha.

6. "Your gonna sit there until your plate is clean"- Ok, I would actually sit for long time. and I think it was only when we had butter beans. The dog wouldn't even be around.

7. "Your grounded until your next report card"- She meant this. I was grounded all school year every school year. which leads back to quote #3 and #4 and sometimes quote #1.

8. "You listen to me when I tell you something"- I often felt this one on my behind. yikes!

9. "Stop crying before I give you something to cry about"- This was actually a hard task and by her saying this, it would often bring on more tears.

10. "One of these days, you will have children just like you"- Um...this is the all mighty mother's curse she put on me and all my siblings , but luckily, mine did not turn out "just like me". Shes alot of the opposite. But because of my own daughter, I understand alot of my mothers reasons.

I have the best mom in the world that always worked hard to keep us straight. She worked hard to keep the family together and keep christian pricipals in the home. I know she didn't have it easy and I appriciate all shes taught me and showed me through life. I find myself more like her every day.